


Coffee Gone Cold

by CrownePrince



Category: Trolls (2016), Trolls World Tour (2020)
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Depressing, Drama, Multi, Open Relationships, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Sad, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24441274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrownePrince/pseuds/CrownePrince
Summary: Out of mutual love Branch and Poppy open their partnership, but what turns out to be perfect for one is not for the other.
Relationships: Branch/Poppy (Trolls), Branch/Poppy/Barb/Hickory (Trolls)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 41





	Coffee Gone Cold

Branch waits at the round table in his small living room and stares at the concentric circles that ring the section of trunk supporting a cold coffee mug. The dark liquid inside is almost black in the low light, an untouched abysmal pool.

The table is bigger than it used to be. He had help bringing the thick slab down here. But now, the expanse of rings feels like an empty eternity that will stretch him thin until he’s nothing. The clay mug’s contents are a speck in a cream vanilla world. One mug sits on one coaster. _We’ll all be able to support each other!_ Poppy’s enthusiastic voice chimes. He tried it, for her. Hair knows he tried.

He really misses his intimate two-person table with the soft fuzzy green edge, the one that didn’t scrape his sides and catch his robe trying to navigate around it. Bittersweet memories of the little table and homemade cards threaten to surface.

A whir stirs solemn atmosphere. The elevator clicks into motion. Branch squeezes his eyes shut, the sick feeling welling up inside his soul. Lately every time he looks at her it hurts. She’s radiant, full of joy and satisfaction. Her hugs spur warmth and security in the darkest corners of his heart. Her kisses are passionate zest leading to the bedroom in heated, backward steps that twine together before falling into the plush mattress. Midnights and mornings of ecstasy tangle between sheets.

Now those kisses are few and far between. She has other people to spend time with. In theory so does he. It’s not the same.

Poppy bounds off the elevator. Her resplendent smile shatters his heart into a thousand pieces. “Hello grumpy snuggle!” she bubbles, and the pieces shatter into pieces. He loves her so much.

His eyes catch the dark splotch attempting to hide beneath a blue shoulder strap. Barb tries to be discreet. The rock queen knows physical reminders make him jealous. A sharpened stake pierces his chest and twists, thinking about them together, feeling like a failure for all the times he is too tired or distracted to sate Poppy’s desires. That mismatch is one reason he agreed to open up.

Sometimes he feels like the least favorite.

Poppy easily slides around the table to give him a gentle hug. His hand goes up before she makes it. Touching will only bring more pain. His voice cracks. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“What… do you mean?” Her smile hangs on by a thread, but underneath she knows exactly what he means. She’s hoping his problem is something they can fix together. It’s not.

Branch breathes in. He lets the stolen time go. “Poppy, I love you. But this type of relationship isn’t working for me.”

She backs off and settles on the low stool closest to his, listening to words they’ve both dreaded hearing.

“I’m not saying you should stop seeing other people,” he says. “You’re happy. I’ve never seen you so alive.”

Poppy perks up. “Maybe you just haven’t met the right person yet? I can help you look. There’s this really cute troll who works at the Vibe City library.”

“I don’t want anyone else.”

“But you get along with Barb so well!”

“Yes! She’s my friend! That doesn’t mean I want to kiss her, or live with her. You’ve seen her house.”

For a second the conversation is forgotten while they picture Barb’s clothes littering the floor, broken furniture, unwashed dishes piling the sink – if they make it there at all. Poppy and Branch both huff a tiny amused laugh.

“Okay,” Poppy says, determined to make this work. “That’s okay. I know it’s hard for you to connect with other trolls, so if you do, that’s great, but if you don’t, that’s fine too. You don’t have to date anyone else if you don’t want. I can spend more time with you—”

“—We’ve talked about this—”

“—and that will fix everything! I can live with you a few days a week if that helps. I love you, and I want to make sure I’m giving you what you need.”

It won’t ever be enough. The gaps where she’s missing aren’t filled by honest talks and carefully planned changes. He knows this by now. Branch can’t satisfy Poppy and she can’t satisfy him. Not in the way they need each other to.

She scatters scrapbooking materials on the table, filling only a portion of the large ringed trunk. Scissors clip paper while she works through plans. “Think of it like an open closed relationship. Here’s us, together, and we’re both free to love any special trolls that enter our life. If that’s only me for you, then… it’s like a mono/poly thing. Tresillo explains it better.”

Nebulous boundaries and constantly shifting rules have worn him down. Discussing feelings is exhausting. He fiddles with the mug’s handle, careful not to spill the stale coffee, and skips straight to the point. “What about kids?”

“I still want them. Don’t you?”

“Whose kids are they going to be? Mine? Barb’s? Hickory’s? An accident with someone else?”

Fear flashes over Poppy’s expression in a way that wrenches his guts. She buries it under optimism. Accidents are to be considered only if they happen – a facet of most pop trolls’ worldview that disturbs him.

Poppy says, “We all have to agree, but I don’t think Barb or Hickory will mind if you’re first. Hickory doesn’t even want kids. And Barb has other partners too.”

“I wanted them to be _our_ children. You and me.”

“And they will be! Why does the parent matter?”

“Then who are they going to live with? One for each of us, so they rarely see each other? Or do we get all of them at once for a day or two, so they rarely see us? And is Hickory really okay with this?”

Poppy rubs the back of her neck. “He says it’s fine. He doesn’t want to spend time on kids, though. I guess we won’t see each other much once it happens, huh? Unless you or Barb is willing to babysit.”

Poppy doesn’t get it. His words make him nauseous but they are firm. “There is no 'me' in this equation.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t… I need someone I can share my life with. All of it.”

Her tone is pleading. “We’re sharing right now.”

The emotion is difficult to explain, frustrating, and painful. Maybe he’s selfish and old-fashioned. He can’t deny who he is. Branch shakes his head. “I’m not like you. I don’t have the energy for all these other trolls. Peace and quiet at the end of the day, and you. That’s what I can handle. To go to bed with you every night and know you’ll be there. To have a family and not worry about all these other complications. Stability, Poppy. I saw… so many people come and go with Trollstice. I need one person, _one person_ , who will stay. I just,” Branch’s voice quavers. He can’t hold it together. “I wanted it to be you.”

Pained silence fills the underground tomb, the place where their love started with handmade invitations and dies with nothing.

He takes a shallow breath. “And I thought it was you,” he finishes, a teary whine piercing his voice. “But now I know it’s not.”

“Branch…” Poppy whispers, her own destroyed spirit cutting the thought short.

Five years together, two of them attempting to navigate a stormy sea that’s brought her brilliant rainbows and given him nothing but inner turmoil. Branch won’t obscure her rainbows. Poppy won’t promise what she can’t give. Five years. This is how it ends.

He tilts his head away and puts a hand over his face in a pathetic attempt to hide so she can’t see the tears. They’re both crying. His heart, his very soul, shreds itself in agony. Physical pain squeezes his chest. It’s hard to breathe. Dreams of a home aboveground one day, with Poppy and their little ones, dissipate. It feels like this emptiness will fill a lifetime.

Love doesn’t last forever, but loss surely does.

After goodbye the ex love of his life takes the elevator up for the last time. He can’t watch, but he hears her go. He hears the end.

Branch sits in the room full of silence  
at a table that’s too big  
with a mug of blackened ichor long gone cold.

**Author's Note:**

> I could've written an upbeat nonmonogamy story; I'm so sorry! T_T It's just... with these two characters, one who is very socially open, and the other who is accepting but closed off, this outcome wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out.
> 
> I recommend the comic Love Not Found for a pick-me-up featuring various relationship types. Gina's comics in general have been hugely inspirational for me to start featuring romantic love outside M/F pairings.


End file.
